Echoes

“Do you have a car here?” Natasha checked the weapons on her hip habitually as they walked out of the elevator and onto the main floor of the Refuge building. Scarlett nodded her head and pointed around the back corner instead of toward the front doors. The security officer was still standing guard as he did every night as she had asked him to. She knew she could trust that he’d sent any remaining employees home at her insistence.

“Why?” Scarlett led them around the corner and through the corridors that would lead them to the parking garage that she’d had built alongside Refuge for its employees.

“You’ll drive us a few miles down the road. Then we’ll ditch your car and take mine back to S.H.I.E.L.D.” Natasha explained though her explanation didn’t really answer any questions and only raised more.

“And why is it that we don’t just take my car the whole way there? It seems like a waste of time and energy to stop along the way.” Scarlett rolled her eyes and punched in her key code at the door before holding it open for Jinx and Natasha to pass through.

“The paparazzi know all your license plate numbers now. They sit outside and wait for you to leave so they can stalk you and snap a few pictures of you doing something noteworthy.”

“Oh, that.” Scarlett sighed. Often she forgot that she was the target of the media and it had gotten her into trouble a number of times. She had to learn to be more careful, problem was she didn’t want to. Thankfully it had done nothing to ruin her cover thus far. “Won’t they follow us from there?”

“Not if you’re careful.”

“If I’m careful we can just take my car.” Scarlett chuckled and led them to the lowest floor of the parking garage where she had her designated parking spot. She almost always had a car parked there even if she wasn’t using it. Most of what she did on a daily basis was designed to create an illusion of the woman the media wanted her to be. The cars she got to drive were probably one of her favorite parts of the illusory life she led. Scarlett had always been fond of cars, fast luxury cars in particular. For now she was playing around with a new Ferrari 458 in a shade of dark blue. Scarlett had never been incredibly fond of Ferraris but she couldn’t resist the sleek lines of this particular car. Not to mention the status symbol of a Ferrari said more than words to the public. Even people who didn’t know cars knew that Ferraris were expensive.

“It’s not worth the risk. We’ll do it my way.” Natasha climbed into the passenger’s seat and waited for Jinx to climb in the back. The car was beautiful but wasn’t exactly designed to fit more than a handful of people. Sports cars were not designed for comfort.

“Of course we will. That’s how things work now.” Scarlett grumbled and got behind the wheel of the car and once the doors were closed, turned over the engine and switched the car into gear. Driving was one of the few things she got to do these days that allowed her to take out her frustration. Currently she was incredibly tense.

“Don’t be like that.” Natasha pointed to the road in front of her. “Make a left and keep driving toward the water.” Scarlett didn’t respond but did as she was told even if she didn’t want to. There were only so many favors she could ask for. Her friendship with Natasha was overshadowed by her responsibility to S.H.I.E.L.D. “The last thing we need is to have to explain a late night meeting with S.H.I.E.L.D. to the media. They’re already hoping that you slip up somewhere and give them a story about your past.”

“S.H.I.E.L.D. is going to have to get over that eventually. How long do they think we can really keep this under wraps?” Scarlett sighed in annoyance but followed Natasha’s directions as she led her through the streets and toward the water. “And when I go on the offensive they’re going to have to deal with the rumors only getting worse. They knew what I was when I approached them so I don’t see why it’s suddenly such a big deal.”

“That’s if you get the okay to go on the offensive.” Natasha sounded far less supportive than she had been on the roof and it rubbed Scarlett the wrong way instantly.

“Fine, Black Widow, do you see anyone on our tail? I don’t. But of course, these days I need approval to make these kinds of decisions, so if you please.”

“Stop it.” Natasha smacked Scarlett hard on the shoulder, receiving a glare in return.

“You stop it.”

“There’s no one on your tail.” Natasha remarked after silence had fallen in the car. The tension had lessened thanks to their joking around but it still set the mood.

“I have a very bad feeling about this idea.” Jinx whispered, leaning away from the uncomfortable backseat and placing her hands on the two front seats so she could peek between them. “Maybe we should wait until morning to do this. You have to go in anyway so Widow could just meet us there and talk while you’re busy.” Natasha turned in the passenger seat and looked to Jinx seriously.

“You have a bad feeling? Should we turn around?” Her worry was genuine. She wasn’t very familiar with Jinx as an agent but she’d been briefed on her S.H.I.E.L.D. file and knew that often the woman exhibited a supernatural gift of predicting which way luck would turn. Jinx nodded her head but then pouted as Scarlett made a skeptical noise of disapproval.

“Look, she has told me every day for the past two months that I’m going to have a building fall on my head and does it look like I’ve had a building fall on me recently? Granted I’ve had some rotten luck but it’s not like we didn’t know that before Julianna here went on and on about it. It doesn’t mean she’s precognitive, it means that she knows enough about my shady past to guess that it’s not over yet. You and I both know that, Natasha. No offense Jinx, but you can’t expect me to believe it just because you say it’s true.”

“No offense taken.”

“She was right about this morning.” Natasha argued. “She called Stark showing up out of the blue the way he did. We have to talk more about that before the night’s out, by the way.”

“What’s to talk about? He wants to make a business transaction.”

“With you?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Scarlett laughed in mock offense.

“I know Stark and I know you.” Natasha threw Scarlett a suspicious glance which Scarlett instantly returned out of the corner of her eye. “I know what’s going to end up happening and it’s about five letters shorter than business.”

“It’s just a business deal. You’re acting as crazy as she is! It’s not like I’ve accepted either.” Scarlett gestured to Jinx in the backseat. “Look, she was bound to get lucky even if you suspect that Stark showing up wasn’t just a coincidence. No offense again.”

“None taken. Well, okay a little taken, that was harsh.” Jinx pouted but pointed to a restaurant on the corner. “Look, Scarlett, it’s your favorite Thai place! We could go grab some dinner since you skipped lunch to go out with Stark earlier. Come on, I know how much you love curry.”

“That’s a great idea, Jinx. Except that we’re going to S.H.I.E.L.D. right now. If you are still hungry after all is said and done we’ll go grab something if the place is still open. If not then you’ll just have to wait. Stop trying to keep us from going to see Fury.” Scarlett spoke resolutely and then turned again when Natasha instructed her to. “We’re not bailing on this. You’re going to have to deal with it. Even if you have a bad feeling, I’m doing this.” Her unyielding tone ended the conversation. There was no arguing with her on the matter and though they had tried, they knew she wouldn’t relent, not tonight. Maybe if she hadn’t gotten the bad news about her Indian friend they could’ve convinced her, but that wasn’t the case.

She had to do something about what had happened in Calcutta. Sitting around unable to protect the very few people in her life who had been there for her through thick and thin was slowly killing her. Even if S.H.I.E.L.D. wouldn’t approve her request to get involved she would see that something was done about it. The whole situation was grossly unfair. MedCo had destroyed innocent lives simply to send a message to her. If they were going to pursue her then they should come for her directly. Using past connections to scare her was the coward’s way out.

They expected her to sacrifice her life for the people she left behind and Scarlett was more than willing to do just that. But MedCo wasn’t even giving her the opportunity to make the sacrifice play. She had the distinct feeling that no matter what choice she made the people in her life would suffer. It was lucky that there were very few people left in Scarlett’s life. Those that remained were there in the car with her on their way to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters and were perfectly capable of taking care of themselves.

Regardless, Scarlett hated how often she was putting others in harm’s way. She wanted to go it alone and put a stop to the craziness that had followed her tumultuous breakup. Maybe there was a way she could’ve prevented the loss of life. Stop it, she thought, you can’t relive the past. If she dwelled too hard on what had transpired then she would get lost there. What mattered was what she could do not what she had done. Even if what she had done had torn apart the family of a man who had done nothing but look out for her while she ran dangerous missions.

“There’s a parking garage by the wharf. I prefer to stay there when I’m on my way to see you. The paparazzi seem to avoid the place because of the smell,” Natasha spoke but Scarlett simply nodded her head in response. She was no longer in the mood to chat, especially about her personal life. They’d already spoken far too much about it that night at length. Maybe when she got home, once she’d put her case before S.H.I.E.L.D. authority, she’d see if she could locate her old acquaintance’s family. With any luck they would be left untouched. But how would they get by? It was her fault that the family was without a husband and a father, if they hadn’t been killed too.

Scarlett still had money hidden in banks offshore. If she could find the family then it was possible she could send them some compensation monthly to help out. It would alleviate her conscience at least a little bit to know that they were well taken care of. But how had MedCo tracked down her handler in the first place? She’d never directly made contact with him except for phone calls and those had been carefully placed through secure servers and with the best technology, half of which she had designed herself.

Maybe it wasn’t worth the risk to try and contact the grieving family now. As much as she wanted to help, as much as she wanted to do something, Scarlett knew she had become bad blood. Whatever she touched turned to dust and left burned bridges behind her. If her handler’s family died, if his wife and children died, because of something she did she would never be able to forgive herself.

No, she wouldn’t do anything to compromise the family. She would leave them alone and let them live their lives, hopefully without the danger of being caught in her web of lies. But Scarlett wouldn’t let sleeping dogs lie completely either. When she got to speak to Nick Fury, which hopefully would be that night, she would ask to see what could be done for the family. Maybe if they were taken into protective custody by S.H.I.E.L.D. the risk wouldn’t be nearly as bad. Not that going into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody had done much for her. The list of things to discuss with Nick Fury was growing longer by the second.

“Here we go, park on the first floor. Your car’s too expensive to park further away from security in this part of town.”

“Thanks for the dig on my car. You’re just jealous, I think.” Scarlett pulled through the parking garage entrance after taking a ticket from the counter.

“Not at all.”

“It’s not too late for us to go grab dinner. You ladies sound like you could use a few drinks to take the edge off.” Jinx smiled hopefully as the car came to a stop. The back of the Ferrari was uncomfortable but the closer they’d got to the parking garage the worse the bad feeling had become in her chest. She knew something awful was going to happen and there was nothing she could do to prevent it.

“Look, we can’t make her do anything she doesn’t want to do, Jinx so stop pouting back there. Scarlett’s a big girl and she can decide what she wants to do with her time without us pressuring her.” Natasha unbuckled her seatbelt and turned to look back at Jinx who was, indeed, pouting.

“Damn right, I am.”

“Even though she’s just been given some incredibly terrible news. Even if she’s not acting upset she is upset and is making rash decisions based around these irrational emotions. All she really should be doing right now is going home, having a strong drink, and mourning the loss of a friend.”

“I don’t mourn.” Scarlett got out of the car and slammed the front door closed. Once her comrades had done the same she set the alarm and walked away. “I get even.” Natasha led them through the mostly empty parking garage and toward a set of stairs at the far end near the water that could be heard lapping over the rocks down below.

“Sure, you could do that. Get even.” Natasha didn’t bother looking to Scarlett because she knew that her gaze wouldn’t be met. “Hunt them down, kill them, and make them pay. But what will that really accomplish? You’ll still be grieving, just putting it off a little longer when you could be embracing it right now. Get your hands a little bloodier, Scarlett. See how good it feels.” Natasha sighed heavily. “Then there’s this whole thing you’ve got going on now. If you have another fit like you had on the roof where you lose your senses? You’re just going to get yourself killed. Isn’t that exactly what we’re trying to prevent?”

Scarlett stopped on the stairs and slammed her hand against the metallic railing. The resounding clang echoed throughout the stairwell and left them in silence. Natasha and Jinx both stopped walking and turned to stare at Scarlett who was glaring at Natasha at the top of the stairs. She didn’t need to say anything, her eyes said it all. Natasha had crossed a line and Scarlett had enough.

Jinx readjusted her footing uncomfortably and chewed her lip nervously. Between the bad feeling she had in her gut and the awkwardness between the two dangerous women walking ahead of her on the stairs, Jinx was the most uncomfortable she’d been in a very long time.

Scarlett heaved a sigh and then let go of her white knuckled grip on the railing before walking up the remaining stairs and around Natasha. She walked through the heavy door and onto the final enclosed floor of the parking garage without the two S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents to escort her. Jinx joined Natasha at the top of the stairs and watched the door close in front of them. Neither of them had to say it, they were both thinking the same thing.

They had every reason to be concerned about their friend but they couldn’t help her if she wouldn’t let them.

“Give her time, Widow,” Jinx whispered cautiously.

“Time isn’t going to help if S.H.I.E.L.D. gives her the approval to pursue MedCo.” Natasha followed through the door without another word from Jinx who shook her head in dismay.

“They’ll never approve. She’s not fit for duty. We both know that.” Jinx hesitated to follow through the doors, the feeling in her gut fighting her every bit of the way. “Oh, what the hell.” She joined the other two women in the parking garage. Scarlett was standing near the gap between floors looking out at the city lights again below. Natasha stood next to her, waiting and not saying a word. Jinx felt something in her stomach turn and went over her options again in her head. None of them sounded very appealing. It couldn’t hurt to continue her objections but she knew Scarlett well enough to know that her mind wouldn’t change.

“We’re going to talk to S.H.I.E.L.D. tonight.” Scarlett broke the tense silence, but the anger that she’d exhibited in the stairwell had dissipated. “Even if I can’t convince them that I need to stop playing to the media, I have to talk to them about him.”

“And we’re going.” Natasha placed her hand on Scarlett’s shoulder comfortingly.

“We’re seriously doing this?” Jinx followed them as they walked across the well lit parking garage where Natasha’s car sat waiting near the far end.

“Look you two may not trust me enough to take care of things on my own but I know my limits.” Scarlett turned to walk backwards, holding her clutch beneath her arm and offering an understanding smile. “I get it, you’re worried about me. You may think I’m just being stubborn but I really do understand. But what you and S.H.I.E.L.D. are eventually going to have to realize is that this is my life. I have to be the one to fight for it even if no one seems to comprehend the reasons why. I do appreciate what S.H.I.E.L.D. has done and that they’ve kept me alive since I sought refuge but in the end it’s still my fight.”

Natasha opened her mouth to respond but something caught her eye in the darkness facing the water. The sound made her realize what it was before she could see it.

“Get down!” She pulled her gun out of its holster on her thigh and ducked low to the ground in the parking garage. Neither Scarlett nor Jinx hesitated and did as they were told. As if on cue, shots were fired from the darkness, raining overhead and crashing into the concrete behind them. They whistled through the air so close that they could feel the heat radiating off of them.

“Take cover!” Scarlett shouted, still crouching low to the ground. The hail of bullets ceased and they could hear the sound of helicopter blades through the air. There were no lights coming from the chopper but they could see it well enough now that it had closed in. Natasha went left and Scarlett and Jinx went right, ducking behind cars. The vehicles wouldn’t provide much cover for very long. They’d have to disable the helicopter before attempting to get to safety.

“We have to take it down!” Natasha shouted to Scarlett across the parking lot.

“Aim for the rotor, throw it off balance!” She responded and received a nod of confirmation. Jinx was covering her ears from the sound and hiding behind the car. It wasn’t that she was scared, she just wasn’t used to helicopters sneaking up on her and trying to murder her.

Natasha waited for the sound of gunfire to cease before stepping out from behind the black SUV that was keeping her safe. There were shouts from the helicopter barely audible over the sound of the blades keeping it afloat. Skillfully she fired her weapon while walking toward the helicopter, aiming through the darkness toward the rotor at the top of the bird. Natasha kept an eye on the shadows moving within the chopper and while she couldn’t quite make out what they were doing she knew well enough the familiar sounds of a weapon being cocked.

“Tasha!” Scarlett yelled across the parking garage, running out from behind the car where she hid with Jinx. “Stay there, Bennett!”

“You don’t have to tell me twice!”

Natasha hid behind the concrete barrier, seated on the sill of the gap that overlooked the ground below when the automatic weapon whirred and fired again. Scarlett hid behind a group of cars in the corner and watched as the bullets sprayed throughout the parking garage, some passing through the car over her head and others missing their targets entirely. Thankfully high powered automatic weapons had very low accuracy. When the lull in bullets came a second time, Scarlett and Natasha both crawled out of their hiding places.

Natasha aimed for the pilot of the helicopter, cracking the glass with her first shot. Scarlett kept aiming at the rotors that Natasha had gone for earlier. If she hit them enough eventually the damage done would throw the machine off balance and force it to the ground. Natasha reloaded her pistol and aimed toward one of the men reloading the big gun. The ammunition fell from the helicopter and clattered somewhere below, forcing him to start over.

“Got it!” Scarlett gritted her teeth, reloading her only backup clip of ammunition before continuing to shoot at the rotor, wearing away at it. Finally her shooting made progress and the rotor began to smoke and sway. Her plan had worked but it had thrown the rotor completely off. The helicopter swung around unnaturally and the blades crashed against the concrete structure. They forced the copter away from the building and it crashed down below into the water with a resounding splash.

Once sure that there was no backup helicopter coming to shoot at them Jinx peeked out from where she’d taken cover. Scarlett checked her clip and walked back toward the other women.

“Is everyone alright?” She kept glancing over her shoulder as though expecting another attack. The floor of the parking garage was littered with spent shell casings and stray bullets. They were lucky that the fight with the high powered machine gun hadn’t gone on for any longer or they would’ve been Swiss cheese.

“What the hell was that about?” Natasha cleared her throat and then looked to Scarlett and realized she wouldn’t have any more ammunition hiding anywhere on her person, not in the dress she wore. She handed her an extra clip which Scarlett took gratefully.

“MedCo.” Scarlett shrugged as though the answer was simple. In her gut she knew that’s who it had been. She was honestly surprised that Scott hadn’t jumped out of the helicopter and come for her, threatening her with some unrealistic torture. “They wanted to make sure I got your message. Probably didn’t expect you to relay anything that would affect me emotionally. Obviously someone else has done some thinking about going on the offensive.”

“Let’s get out of here.” Natasha grimaced, pulling out the keys to the car.

“We’re not done yet.” Jinx stared at the stairwell. Her stomach was killing her and her head was pounding. She closed her eyes and inhaled shakily. “I told you I had a bad feeling. No one listens to me.”

Scarlett grabbed Jinx by the arm to guide her over to the black sedan on the far end of the parking garage but didn’t get far. The doors Jinx had fixated on opened and in filed a dozen armed men dressed completely in black from head to toe, their faces obstructed by gasmasks. Natasha stepped closer to Scarlett, closing in ranks to help protect her friend when it became inevitable that they would come after her.

“Scarlett, get in the car and leave. We’ll distract them,” Natasha whispered, holding her weapon at the ready and preparing herself for a fight.

“Not a chance.” Scarlett responded, tossing aside the clutch so it wouldn’t get in her way. They were limited on ammunition and outnumbered but with any luck they could find their way out of the fight. This was what they’d trained for over the years.

The armed men hurried toward them and quickly surrounded the group, each holding a weapon aimed at them threateningly. A tall, muscular man in the middle spoke through his gas mask in a distorted voice.

“We don’t want to harm you. We’re only here for Miss Damien.”

“Of course they are.” Scarlett rolled her eyes. “Predictable.”

“That’s too bad.” Natasha took a deep breath, counting the men over her shoulder again and playing out various scenarios in her head. There was a reason she was called the Black Widow, and it had very little to do with being a woman. “She’s previously engaged, I’m afraid.” Then would’ve been the perfect time for the assailants to strike and yet they hesitated. Scarlett knew why and that would be their downfall. They didn’t want to hurt them. She bet anything they had orders to take her in alive and were hesitating to fire shots. This could give them the advantage.

“Ladies.” Scarlett looked to her friends, as though she was going to hand herself over but then instead aimed her gun quickly at the lights over head. With the remaining three bullets in her weapon she shot out the bulbs surrounding them, leaving them suddenly in darkness. Instantly all there women separated to divide and conquer their enemies.

Natasha holstered her gun and ran toward the nearest assailant. Realizing what they were up to the men scattered and hoped to throw them off. Some ran toward the light while others ventured further into the darkness after the women. Natasha knew they wouldn’t shoot Scarlett, at least not to kill, but it didn’t mean that they weren’t willing to kill her and Jinx to get to Scarlett. She grabbed onto the man’s arm as he swung at her, bent it back toward him then twisted it around. He dropped the gun so Natasha crouched low, retrieved it and artfully dismantled it and threw it behind her.

When he withdrew a knife and swung at her she jumped out of the way. From her belt she pulled out two small discs attached to each other by a small wire. With a click of a button in the middle decorated with a red hourglass, she was able to pull the wire further apart. She twisted it around his wrist and spun him in place. His arm was temporarily tangled within it but she managed to free the wires and then wrap them around his neck and pull hard. He was much taller than her but it didn’t stop him from succumbing to her strength. After moments of struggling he fell limp in her arms and Natasha let him go.

A second attacker came to aid his ally but he was too slow. Natasha crouched low and slid between his legs as he fired a blind shot in the dark. By the time he realized he’d missed Natasha had climbed onto his back and wrapped her arm around his neck, cutting off the flow of oxygen to his lungs. He fell just as quickly as his friend had, limp in a pile beneath her.

When realizing the rest of the assailants hadn’t targeted her she turned her attention to her comrades. Jinx squealed as she ducked out of the way of one of the men but was grabbed around her waist. Walking steadily toward them Natasha held out her left arm and triggered the bulky tasers she had wrapped around her wrists. Each one held at least ten cartridges. It was the easiest weapon she could think to use without killing her assailants. S.H.I.E.L.D. had very much frowned upon killing when it wasn’t completely necessary. It had interfered with the way Natasha worked.

Jinx had seen Widow coming toward her and ducked out of the man’s arms as the needles at the end of the wires punctured his flesh and sent electricity jolting through his system. He spat all over himself as he shook until Natasha released the wires from the weapon on her wrist. Jinx turned in place and kicked the shaking man onto the ground where he passed out. Hunching over his body, Jinx picked up his gun from his hands.

“Sorry.” She whispered, patting his shoulder sympathetically. She wasn’t particularly fond of hurting even the most seemingly ruthless of thugs. She was well aware that most times those working for corporations like MedCo were just like her: doing a job for a paycheck. That wasn’t going to keep her from fighting back, but it did make her feel guilty about the damage she did.

Leaving the man in a heap of a pile on the ground, Jinx surveyed the room. Taking a chance she ran out into the light, and across the parking lot toward the elevator doors where she caught sight of a circuit breaker box. With any luck she would be able to play the situation to their advantage. It was locked and she thought about shooting off the lock but figured she’d do damage to the breakers inside. Instead she turned the pistol around and slammed the handle against the lock until it finally chipped off and she was able to pull the handle and open it wide.

She found the breakers for the lights and flipped them off leaving them completely consumed in darkness on the fourth floor of the parking garage. Then she flipped on half the breakers for the lights, then off again. If she could create some confusion for their opponents then it could give them the upper hand. She only hoped that she wouldn’t end up confusing her allies in the process. Jinx had the distinct feeling that Scarlett and Natasha were well trained enough to handle a few flickering lights.

Scarlett had planned to take out the rest of the lights if she got the chance, but was pleased when Jinx had done the job instead. She wouldn’t have been able to regardless, considering she was the target. Most of the men spent their time hunting through the darkness for her in hopes of being the one to take her down. So she waited for the men to come to her. There was no need to pursue them when they were actively pursuing her.

The first man who came for her made a sloppy grab so she twisted out of the way and slammed her heel straight onto his foot. He howled in pain but still grabbed for her. Jumping out of the way she spun around and slammed her elbow straight into his nose, breaking it. He instinctively hunched forward to hold his face that was now gushing blood. Scarlett grabbed his left arm, knocked the gun out of it and then twisted it hard behind him. She kept pulling until she felt his shoulder pop out of joint.

His cry of pain did nothing to save him from Scarlett’s wrath. She was far too frustrated with MedCo to show them any mercy. He collapsed to the ground in a heap but wasn’t unconscious so she pressed her heel hard against the joint she’d dislocated. Almost immediately he passed out from the pain. Why should she show them mercy? They hadn’t shown any when they’d hunted down her handler and made an example of him. If MedCo wanted to send her a message she would send one back just to let them know exactly what she thought of them.

When she stood upright again another man was waiting for her. He grabbed her arm and she immediately swatted him off. Her assailant was cleverer than she expected and when she knocked his arm away he grabbed her wrist and spun her around so her back was to his chest. He placed his arm around her neck in an attempt to subdue her. When she managed to slip her hand between his arm and her throat to keep him from blocking her airway, he instead pulled a needle out of his tool belt and readied it. She could smell the faint but sweet aroma of something she definitely didn’t want coursing through her veins.

“Son of a…” Scarlett gritted her teeth and cursed. Risking being strangled she pulled her hand away from his arm and elbowed him hard in the stomach. He buckled but didn’t give so she did it again. Then with her other hand she grabbed his wrist to keep him from pushing the needle into her side. Her hand shook and she reflected on how much weaker she was now than she was only a month ago. Panic flickered through her thoughts briefly as she considered being injected with something new. There was no worse a fate that she could imagine.

“Be careful! He’s got some kind of drug!” Scarlett hissed through a strangled cry as a warning to Natasha and Jinx so they would be on the lookout. The last thing she wanted was to see her friends fall prey to whatever crazy concoction that MedCo had come up with for the occasion. Jinx shut the lights off again overhead and she felt the man with his arms around her desperately trying to stick the needle in her side flinch. Risking being stuck with the needle, Scarlett repositioned her hand on his wrist. She felt around for his bones and tendons and when she found the right place she snapped it as hard as she could.

She felt the bone break and his grip instantly loosen on her and the needle. Seizing opportunity she grabbed onto the needle and shoved it into the side of his neck, one of the only places on his person that wasn’t covered in black fabric and body armor. Once the plunger had been completely pressed she released the needle and stepped out of his arms. He choked for a second before falling to the ground in a heap.

Crouching, Scarlett checked his pulse and was grateful to feel it there. She could only hope that meant the drug was a sedative and nothing worse. MedCo had been experimenting in genetic enhancement and from everything she’d read up on it, it hadn’t been going incredibly well. The lights overhead flickered back on so Scarlett hurried over to the bag she’d discarded only a few feet away. Inside she found her cell phone and dialed S.H.I.E.L.D. Someone instantly picked up, much to her relief.

“We need backup! I’m at a parking garage near the water!” Scarlett couldn’t shout out directions because one of the men had caught up to her and knocked the phone from her hand. It smashed to the ground with a crash, rendered useless. Scarlett cursed under her breath and backed up from the man who was now holding up his fists and ready for a fight. In the distance they could hear sirens approaching, presumably for them. Someone had to have spotted the disturbance with the lights and heard the rapid gunfire from the helicopter. It had only been a matter of time before the police had been called to the scene.

“Wrap it up! Gather the cargo and go!” One of the men yelled as they too became aware of the sirens. Another one of the men pulled something from his belt and then tossed it to the ground in between the group. It was a smoke grenade and it burst into a cloud of white smoke that stung at their eyes but not enough to cause damage. Thankfully it hadn’t been designed to hurt but to distract just as the lights flickering had been. Scarlett and Natasha instantly ran away from the smoke but Jinx stayed near the breakers.

One of the men had come after her to stop her from messing with the power in the building and she’d spent a great deal of time dodging his every blow. She refused to give up her position but at the same time didn’t want to hurt the man if she could help it. Unfortunately he was getting pushy and the more time she spent dodging his attacks the less help she’d be to her friends. So finally Jinx swung the gun she still held in her hand by the barrel and hit him hard on the side of the head with the butt end of it.

“I hate doing that! I’m sorry!” Jinx whimpered an apology to no one in particular. This was her least favorite part of being in the field. It wasn’t that she couldn’t fight, just that she hated the end result of it. Things always got messy and she always felt bad about it later.

“Jinx! Scarlett! Are you two okay?” Natasha called over the chaos, trying to catch a glimpse of her friends through the smoke.

Scarlett had run from the smoke toward the opposite end of the parking garage. Halfway there she’d pulled her heels off and dropped them to the side. When the man caught up to her and grabbed her, Scarlett pressed her bare feet to the wall and pushed them both hard away from it. The momentum released her from his grip so she spun around, grabbed him by his arm and swung him hard against the wall. She kicked the back of his knee and he fell to the ground.

He rolled onto his back in an attempt to get away from her but Scarlett knelt down and punched him hard in the gut and then again in the side, away from his body armor so he would feel it right in his ribs. Standing up she pressed her bare foot against his throat and stepped down just hard enough to constrict his airways and knock him unconscious. Finally he passed out and she made a grunt of satisfaction, curling her lips practically in a snarl.

“I’m finally getting to release some pent up aggression.” Scarlett responded out of breath to Natasha, coughing and eventually spitting the phlegm gathered in her throat to the side.

Jinx flipped the lights back on again so that they could see a bit better through the smoke. Now that she could see Scarlett and Natasha’s silhouettes she felt some relief.

“I’m shaken but okay! I don’t think the guy who was trying to stop me is doing very well though.” Jinx pouted, looking to the man on the ground next to her whose forehead was bleeding and beginning to swell.

Natasha laughed at Jinx’s response even if she hadn’t meant it to be funny. The man coming after her stopped in front of her and held out his gun. Natasha held up her hands and pretended to surrender but had pulled a small device from her belt before doing so.

“Here, take this.” Natasha moved to put her hands in front of her as if to offer them to be cuffed but instead handed him the small round device and jumped out of the way. He looked at it puzzled but only for a second because then it burst into a brilliant spectacle of electricity that shocked him right into unconsciousness. “We need to make it to my car. We have to get out of here!” Natasha looked over to Jinx who seemed to be in the clear and then threw her car keys toward her.

Jinx scrambled to catch the keys and then yelped in surprise when a gunshot whistled past her. She crouched behind a car and finally turned her gun the way it was intended to be held and fired shots to throw him off. Despite the chaos she continued to make her way to the black sedan at the far end of the parking lot. She cut through the remaining smoke that hung in the air in hopes of being less of an obvious target.

Natasha ran toward the man firing at Jinx and pulled him down by the arm he was aiming with. While he was crouched forward she jumped over him and went to shock him with the tasers on her wrists but was instead met with the cold sharp steel of his knife. It tore through her suit like butter and cut into the flesh of her arm. She spun away from him to avoid being caught in the way of the blade a second time. When he took another swing at her, the knife suddenly clattered out of his hand.

Scarlett fired her gun toward him through the smoke and shot him right in the shoulder. He collapsed to the ground and Scarlett came running toward Natasha who was holding her bloodied arm in surprise.

“Are you okay?” Scarlett shouted but then stopped short as she felt the pin pricks of the bad end of a taser sticking right through her dress. Instantly she collapsed to her knees and placed her hands in front of her on the ground. She could taste metal in the back of her throat and coughed while trying to ward off the discomfort of the electricity spreading through her system. Her fingers and toes went numb and her head felt light as it threatened her with unconsciousness. No matter how hard she tried to fight and focus she couldn’t seem to.

As soon as the shock had ended two of the remaining men were on her. One pinned her face down on the ground and though she attempted to struggle it was made that much harder by the fact that she couldn’t feel her extremities properly. When she realized she wasn’t going to get out of it on her own she lifted her head from the ground.

“Tasha!” That was all she got out before she felt the sharp tip of a needle in her arm. Whatever they gave her burned in her veins. It was only seconds before she succumbed to the drugs and passed out face first on the concrete.

Natasha ran through the smoke when she heard Scarlett’s cry for help. The man standing over her was attempting to put handcuffs on her while she laid helpless on the ground. Natasha dove at him blindly and knocked him onto his back where he slid on the concrete hard. She pressed her hand to his chest and shocked him until he fell unconscious.

“Scarlett! Scarlett, talk to me!” She cried out but there was no response from the brunette lying in a pile on the ground nearby. The second man who had drugged Scarlett was coming toward her, gun aimed toward her head.

The squealing of tires signaled that the car was indeed doing just fine after the gunfire. Jinx rammed it right into the gunman and he rolled over the top of it before Jinx slammed hard on her brakes. There was only one remaining foe left and he was on his way back toward the stairwell in an attempt to get away before it was too late. Natasha, angry after watching her friend fall, got off of the ground, pulled her gun from its holster and aimed two well placed shots both which hit her target in the shoulder. He fell face first onto the ground and didn’t get back up.

Jinx opened the driver’s side door of the car and left the keys in the ignition. She ran around to the back of the car and pushed the man who had fallen onto the trunk off of it and onto the ground. After that she checked his pulse to make sure he wasn’t dead and smacked his cheek to make sure he wasn’t conscious.

Natasha holstered her weapon and ran over to Scarlett who was lying limp and non-responsive. She knelt down next to her friend and found the needle still jammed in her arm, only half the plunger pressed. She picked up the needle and smelled the end of it in hopes of detecting anything that had been given to her. She’d have to hold onto what remained in the needle so they could run tests to make sure Scarlett wouldn’t have any adverse reactions. With any luck it wasn’t anything lethal.

“Is she alright?” Jinx took a wary step closer. While she had hated every second of the fight the bad feeling in her chest was finally letting go. Natasha nodded her head but looked at Jinx over her shoulder to offer a comforting smile.

“Her pulse is jumpy but she’s alive. I don’t know if it’s from the drugs or not.” Natasha pushed Scarlett’s hair out of her face and then felt for breath beneath her nose. She seemed to still be breathing and wasn’t turning a funny color so she thought that was a good sign.

“What did they give her?”

“I don’t know.” Natasha handed Jinx the needle she’d recovered. “Whatever it was, it knocked her out. Let’s hope that’s all it did. Bring it with us, okay?” Natasha instructed and Jinx nodded, hurrying to place the needle in an evidence bag that had been kept in the car.

The sirens they’d heard earlier were coming closer now. It was only a matter of time before they finally arrived on site and made things worse.

“We’ve got to go.” Jinx looked back down to Scarlett and winced. “Before the police get here. If the papers get wind of this it’s going to be a disaster.”

“You’re right.” Natasha nodded toward where Scarlett laid on the ground. “Help me, she’s too damn tall.” Between the two women they managed to lift Scarlett off of the ground and then lay her in the back of the car. Once they were sure she wouldn’t go rolling around they closed the doors and got into the front of it. Natasha picked up her phone and placed it to her ear as she drove out of the parking garage. “This is Black Widow. We had an incident at the parking garage near the wharf. We’re going to need some help cleaning up the mess and I’m coming in. We’ll need medical assistance upon arrival.”